Shop art print and framed art Saint Michel by Raffaello
Subjects : History, Religion
Keywords : Archangel, Saint Michael, combat, dragon, monster
(Ref : 8790) © RMN /Jean-Gilles Berizzi
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Saint Michel OF Raffaello
The artwork
Saint Michel
Saint Michael Overcoming the Devil or The Great Saint Michael is an oil painting (268 × 160 cm) by Raphael, painted in 1518 during the artist's Roman period. The painting is currently in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. It is dated and signed on the border of the tunic "RAPHAEL URBINAS M-D-X-VIII".
The work was commissioned in 1518 by Pope Leo X (John de' Medici) as a gift to Francis I, King of France, to mark the marriage of Lorenzo II de' Medici, the pope's nephew, to Madeleine de la Tour d'Auvergne.
One of Raphael's contemporaries, Sebastiano di Venezia, wrote to Michelangelo in July 1518 to complain about the colouring of the painting and the exaggerated contrast between the two parts.
The work is thought to have been the work of Giulio Romano, who, according to art historian Eugene Muntz, tended to overdo the use of black in order to "obtain a more powerful effect". To correct the colouring problems, the painting was restored in 1530 by Le Primaticcio. After a further restoration in 1685, it was transferred to canvas in 1753.
The earliest records of this work place it in Fontainebleau, then in the King's Cabinet in the Louvre, the Tuileries and Versailles (the King's Chamber).
The Great Saint Michael became the symbol of royal power.
Just over a decade earlier (1505), Raphael had painted the Little Saint Michael, in which the archangel fights a dragon (31 × 26 cm), a painting also in the Louvre.
The painting is now on display in the Grande Galerie of the Louvre.
The [...]
This artwork is a painting from the renaissance period. It belongs to the italian renaissance style.
« Saint Michel » is kept at Musée du Louvre, Paris, France.
Find the full description of Saint Michel by Raffaello on Wikipedia.